Garbage incinerator



March 6, 1951 J. c. vNcENT GARBAGE INCNERATOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 15, 1946 March 6, 1951 J. c. VINCENT GARBAGE INCINERATOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ja- ?V %73% Filed Feb. 15, l946 Patented Ma'r. 6, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE" 2544369 'GARBAGE INCINERATOR Jay C. Vincent, Los Angeles, Calif.

' Application February 15, 1946, Serial No. 647,'196

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to a refuse or garbage incinerator. Garbage and refuse is now collected in large quantity in towns and cities and 'this is often disposed of by incineration. Garbage, especially that collected in the summer, hasa very high content of water. It is thus quite diflicult to burn it in an ordinary furnace.

It is an object of this invention to .provide a structure of refuse or garbage incinerator in which a high temperature can be maintained and which will efliciently dispose of material having a high moisture content.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a garbage or refus incin'erator in which a fire is maintained by ordinary fuel such as coal and in which the garbage or refuse is also burned by said fire and in which the products of combustion are used to heat air which is supplied to said fire to maintain a high temperature.

It is another object of the invention to provide a garbage or refuse incinerator comprising a furnace chamber, said chamber having grates at the bottom thereof an opening for charging garbage or refuse thereinto and an opening at the front and above said grates for charging fuel into said chamber, means for leading away the hot gases of combustion, means for heating air by means of these gases and means for delivering said air beneath said grates.

It is more specifically an object of this in-. vention to provide a garbage or refuse incinerator comprising a chamber having front, side, top and rear walls, said chamber preferably having a front charging portion and a rear combustion` portion, grates forming the bottom of said charging portion, a flue extending from and through said rear wall and being of much less dimension than said chamber, means extending across said flue having a plurality of passages therethrough, said means also having a plurality of passages between said first mentioned passages for the hot gases of combustion, means for passing air through said first mentioned passages to be heated by said gases of combustion and a conduit receiving said heated air and extending to a point beneath the grates in said charging chamber for delivering the heated air to the fire on said grates.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be fully set forth in the fol- Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken substantially on line 2--2 of Fi 1; A

Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken substantially on line 3-3 of Fig. 1, said sections being taken as indicated by the arrows;

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of one of the blocks used in the heat exchange portion of said device; and

Fig. 5 is a view in side elevation of said block.

Referring to the drawings an incinerator is shown having a furnace chamber lil. chamber lil has a front wall loa, a top wall lob, a rear wall lllc and side walls lod.- said walls will comprise an inner portion llle which will be made of refractory material such as fire brick and said front wall has an outer portion lllf of masonry Construction such as ordinary brick. The walls are supported by suitable steel columns H and a sheathing l2 isprovided for some suitable material such as sheet metal which extends parallel to the side, top and rear walls and will be suitably supported by the columns l l and the necessary'transverse beams !3. -The portion iee of lowing description made in connection with the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views and in which:

Fig. 1 is a vertical section taken substantially.

on line l-I of Fig. 2; i

said walls will be so constructed as to withstand the expansion and contraction caused by the high temperatures in chamber li! and may be formed as disclosed in applicant's prior Patent No. 1,932,759 granted October 31, 1933. An airspace M is thus formed between the sheathing l2 and the walls. The top wall lub has spaced openings lug therethrough and said openings are surrounded by upwardly extending portions [Oh of said top wall !Ub as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, The frontportion of the top wall b is formed as an arch as shown in Fig. 1.

Preferably a bridge wall s is provided extending' between side walls ld, the same tepering upwardly somewhat and having its top spaced a comparatively short distance from the top' wall mb. The central portion !Ba of said bridge wall is of considerably greater height than the side portions as shown in Fig. 2. Bridge wall s divides chamber lil in a forward or charging portion and a rear or combustion portion. Grates IB extend from the lower portion of bridge wall [6 to the front wall lila and these extend from one side wall !od to the other. Grates I8 as usual comprise spaced grate bars and these incline downwa'dly and forwardly for the greater part of their length as shown in Fig. 1. A fuel charging and stoking opening loj is provided through the front wall lila just above the front portion of grates !8. charging spouts or chutes 20 extend upwardly from each of the charging openings log, the same extending upwardly'to and through an upper floor or wall 2! and are provided with receiving hoppers 22 at their upper ends. The openings log are normally opened and closed by doors 23 which may be pneumatically or electrically operated. The walls of chamber I D extend to the surface of a floor 25 and front wall !ne and bridge wall [6 are continued downwardly for some distance below grats !3 te term th ll o ee a h i ?6 disposed below grates !8, the same having a downwardlyandforwardly sloping bottom zaa', the top surface of which aligns with the bot: tom of a removal opening 261). Openings loj and Zlib will of course, be provided with suitable doors. The front wall of ash pit ?I? tends downwardly to a lower floor 21. A flue3i`extends rearwardly from the rear nQrtion of charm ber and has a top wall 30a which is continuous with rear wall mc. While flue 30 could 'b'e variously formed, in the embodiment of the invention itis shown as rectangular in cross section and in practice has been" made about four feet wide and five feet high. This is of much smaller dimension than the chamber IU which is approximately 17 feet in width. Flue 30 has appropriate side walls and is shown as having a'bottom wall 30b which, with the top and side walls, will be made of refractory material. The forward portion of bottom wall '3011 rests on the top of floor and 'a tunnel 3! for inspe ction or other purpose, is formed beneath floor 25 by the masonry walls 319. Flue has a depressed recess or pocket 390 immediately in the rear of rear wall ala and has another depressed recess or pocket 3011 some 'distance rearwardly of pocket 300.

' A wall or partition 34 extends across the flue 30 between 'adjacent ends of pockets 300 and and. While wall 34 could be variously formed, in practice it has been found convenient to form the same of refractory tile having openings therethrough, one of which is shown in Fig. 4. When so formed, wall 34'has aplurality or rather large number of spaced vertical passages aa extending therethrough and has a smaller number of spaced horizontal passages 34b extending therethrough, one set of said passages 'being dispsed between the other set. A housing or casing 35 has its lower end extendng to partition 34 and has side portions aligned with the sides of said partition, said housing tapering upwardly and bein connected at its upper end to the discharge end 36aof a fan casing 36 which will containa suitable motor-driven fan. The passages 34a preferably extend through the top wall 30a. A conduit 38 has an enlarged end having sides coextensive with the sides of partition 34 at the bottom thereof and conduit 38 extends horizon tally through walls 3la and the rear wall of ash pit 26 so that it delivers to said ash pit below the grates I8.

In operation, when the incinerator is operated from a completely cold condition ,a fire is first built on the grate [8 with a, suitable combustible fuel such as coal, and this is continued until the chamber o and the walls thereof are well heated. A charge of garbage or refuse is then delivered to the chamber e and a further charge of coni: bustible fuel is delivered to the chamber and placed on top of the garbage. The arbage is thus heated and burred, the same afiording part of the combustion on the grate a and the remainder Q he o b tien 'b i pr rided b the The con lstible gases driyen' off from etrid fuel; ot he a ba ami f e p s u wel '5 se i t he rea 9? &Be em of chamber I ll where the combustion of said gases is completed. The fan in casing 36 will be driven and as the hot gases of combustion pass through flue 30 and through the openings 341) in the wall 34, air will be directed downwardly from casing 36 through the vertical openings 34a and this air will be heated to a high temperature and will be e liver t m h ui a t e u of the gratelB and thusupwardly through said grates and to the' fire and burning material on top of the grates. This air which has been highly heated, expedites the drying of the garbage on the grate and Supplies oxygen for the combustion of the fuel and garbage. The walls of the chamber lo'become highly heated and heat is asiated lie tly qet the ple of garbage from the walls andparticularly from the front wall and the' arch at the forward portion thereof. Garbage is successively charged into chamber ll] and 'a bed of burning .material is kept constantly in place on the grate I 8. The pile of .material slopes downwardly toward the front of the grate and the surface of the material is thus emciently disposed to the heat of radiation from the front Wall and .other .walls. This efiect is secured by the downwardly sloping grate I8. Any ash Or solid matter carried along with the flue gases tends to collect in the pock ts 30 nd 4 Od .and provison will be made for itsefiicient removal. As the garbage and fuel is consumed the ashes pass through the grate 13 into the ash pit 26 a d ese can be remo e h ou h the openin 2619. The .co d it 38 wil f cou s e ov with suitable i u a io The a spa es A a ou the walls of chamber o act efficienty to insulate said walls so that ,said walls can be kept at a h emp atu e t i be e n a he wal 34 Wi h the as: sags hro ,consti ut s a h at c e The a r h t d i wa l 4 nd d iv re t u h th t s !8 a o act e aue hme i draft through' the furnace and `the air thus fiiciently su pl d a d hi fi c nc e o st i Secured. The present structure is a great improvement over the structure shown applicaytf prior patent above identified. With the present structure is' not necessary tofcool the walls of 'chamber I 0' to heat the'airf 'The furnaoe can thus be kept' oons'istently at a'high'er temperature "and more radiati n efict' c'anbe ecured from the heatd was; "The present n' ructon' makes possible the use of"muoh higher temperatures; ahdthese higher tempera tures are' really necessary"to handle .the gar bage having a hig'h moisture content; In sum ner the jr g' c' jc'ted'ntir s a' great d morernoisture .thanthat collec'te'd in the "Winter and ther eu suallyfalso a 'greater' Volume of the garbagein the war'mer seasons'. With .the structure shown in the prior .patent theteiiperature of' the arwas only increase& 'about' 70 degree by .passing around the walls before it .was delivered to thenie." With the prese nt" structure the air increase'd in temperature' about 300 degre's and'the'a'ir is deliveredindr thegrats ironia temperature of fro m' 400 to 450 degrees F.

The furnace temperature is maintained at bout 1499 degrees E. and the temperature f th e'g'a ss of combustion jafterpassing through the air h'eater` or lwall 3 4 sr m' ago to 1000 'degree F. Th prese t' lcfi r l t snt jv .in the amount of fuel necessary to onsiime the g arbag This saving r lt s fnorn thenuch r ate dr in -ci ed bn thesarpf .by e hi h y heated air' andth' uch 'mgreefficint tion Secured on both the fuel and garbage. The garbage and refuse is completely reduced to mineral ash. No objectionable vapors or products are formed and all hazard of diseases are eliminated.

The method and apparatus have been amply demonstrated in actual practice, found to be very successful and efficient, and the same are in actual practice.

It will of course be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the apparatus and in the steps and sequence of steps of the method without departing from the scope of applicant's invention, which, generally stated, consists in a method and apparatus capable of carrying out the objects above set forth, such as disclosed and dened in the appended claim. v

What is claimed is:

An incinerator for burning garbage or the like containing a high moisture content having in combination, a combustion chamber having side, front, top and rear walls, said side, top and rear walls having air spaces therein throughout substantially their whole extent, a bridge wall spaced from said rear wall and extending to adjacent said top Wall, a single grate forming the bottom of said chamber and extending from said front wall to said bridge wall, said top wall having a charging passage therethrough disposed to discharge on the rear portion of said grate, said front wall having a stoking opening therethrough adjacent and above said grate, said chamber having an outlet passage for the products of combustion, the top of which is formed by said top wall and the bottom of which i formed by the top of said bridge Wall, a larger passage leading downwardly from said outlet passage, a second chamber beneath said grate having vertical end and side walls disposed at the f'sides and endS of said grate respectively whereby said chamber has substantially the length and breadth of said grate, said chamber having a forwardly sloping bottom disposed quite a great distance below said grates, said front wall of said second chamber having an ash removal opening therein immediately above said bottom, an elongated horizontal flue leading from said last mentioned passage and disposed a considerable distance above the bottom of said second chamber,- a heat ex- Changer composed of members disposed in said fiue, said members having horizontal passages therethrough and forming vertical passages between said horizonta passages, said products of combustion passing through said horizontal passages, means for forcibly directng air from outside said incinerator vertically downward through said vertical passages for heating said air, and a conduit communicating with the bottom of said vertical passages for receiving said heated air and being disposed centrally below and substantially parallel to said flue and disposed Well above the bottom of said second chamber, the same extending directly to and delivering to said second chamber ata central point transversely of said second chamber and a considerable distance above the bottom thereof whereby said heated air is forced through said grate and very high temperatures can be attained and maintained in said combustion chamber.

' JAY C. VINCENT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

